Fred Kudjo Kuwornu

Fred Kudjo Kuwornu
© Courtesy ALA Conference 2016
Film director, Producer, Screenwriter, Activist
(Male)
Principal country concerned : Column : Cinema/tv

Ghanaian-Italian filmmaker.

Fred "Kudjo" Kuwornu, an activist-producer-writer-director, was born and raised in Italy and based in Brooklyn.
His mother is an Italian Jew, and his father a Ghanaian surgeon who lived in Italy since the early 60's. Fred Kuwornu holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Mass Media, from the University of Bologna. As a teenager, he started his career as a DJ and Producer. Later, he moved to Rome where he began working as a TV show writer for RAI public television.
After his experience working with the production crew of Spike
Lee's "Miracle at St. Anna", Kuwornu decided to research the unknown story of the 92nd Infantry "Buffalo Soldiers" Division, discovering and documenting the journey taken by the real 92nd Infantry veterans, and the entire African American segregated combat unit, which fought in Europe during WW II.
Kuwornu thus produced and directed the Award-winning documentary Inside Buffalo ("Best Documentary" at the Black Berlin International Cinema Festival). Inside Buffalo had viewings at the Pentagon, the Library of Congress and it received a letter of congratulations by President Barack Obama. In 2012, he released 18 IUS SOLIwhich examines multiculturalism in Italy but also specifically looks at questions of citizenship for the one millionchildren of immigrants born and raised in Italy but who are not yet Italian citizens.
Then BlaxploItalian (2016. 52 min. Italy, USA), a documentary that explores the careers, identities and triumphs of an obscure and rarely recognized class of European entertainers: Black actors in Italian cinema.
He is the founder of the Association Diversity Italia promoting the importance of racial and ethnic diversity in Italy and Europe using film and other art forms as toolsfor building a more inclusive society.

Source: African Literature Association 2016 / 42nd Annual Conference
http://dga.kennesaw.edu/ala/docs/ala_2016_program_final.pdf

Partners

  • Arterial network
  • Media, Sports and Entertainment Group (MSE)
  • Gens de la Caraïbe
  • Groupe 30 Afrique
  • Alliance Française VANUATU
  • PACIFIC ARTS ALLIANCE
  • FURTHER ARTS
  • Zimbabwe : Culture Fund Of Zimbabwe Trust
  • RDC : Groupe TACCEMS
  • Rwanda : Positive Production
  • Togo : Kadam Kadam
  • Niger : ONG Culture Art Humanité
  • Collectif 2004 Images
  • Africultures Burkina-Faso
  • Bénincultures / Editions Plurielles
  • Africiné
  • Afrilivres

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